TASE benchmarks rose 5% in 5772

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange rebounds from the previous year’s fall of 6%.

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s benchmark TA-25 and TA-100 rose by about 5 percent
in the Jewish year 5772, rebounding from the previous year’s fall of 6%, the
TASE announced Wednesday in an annual review.

Share-market turnover
decreased significantly in the past year, but bond-market turnover increased.
There was a slowdown in raising of capital in both the share and bond markets.
There was one IPO and two newly dual-listed companies.

The TASE listed
several highlights, including the May release of three new indexes that were
introduced to improve the liquidity of bonds: Tel Bond CPI-linked Index, Tel
Bond CPI-linked Small Cap Index and Tel Bond CPI-linked Banks Index.

The
value of the TA-25 and TA-100 actually decreased by 3% in dollar terms in 5772,
similar to the previous year’s figures, at a time when stocks in most developed
countries rose by 10%-30%, the TASE said. However, despite the relatively poor
performance of the last two years, the TA- 25 has produced a 95% return since
2005, a stronger performance than those of the Nasdaq 100, Dow Jones Industrial
Average, S&P 500, 225 Nikkei, FTSE 100 and other leading indexes, it
said.

The greatest global challenges of the past year, the TASE said,
were: the European credit crisis and downgrading of credit ratings of developed
economies and leading European banks; the Arab Spring. The greatest domestic
challenges were: rising unemployment; the expanding government deficit; the
Knesset’s approval of tax hikes and expenditure cuts; the strengthening (by
7.7%) of the dollar against the shekel.

On the other hand, it listed a
number of positive influences on the TASE, including the success of the Nasdaq
and other leading stock exchanges around the world and strong domestic economic
growth.